Individual racism and institutional racism

For example, a 2020 study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that Black drivers are twice as likely as white drivers to be pulled over by police, and three times more likely to be searched. The study also found that Black and Hispanic pedestrians are more likely to be stopped and frisked by police than white pedestrians.

Institutional racism:

Black and Hispanic Americans are also more likely to be convicted of crimes and to receive harsher sentences than white Americans, even when controlling for factors such as the severity of the crime and the defendant's criminal history.

For example, a 2017 study by the Sentencing Project found that Black men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men. The study also found that Black men are more likely to receive life sentences than white men for the same crimes.

Example 2:

Current event:

A 2023 article in the New York Times found that the city of New York's facial recognition software was disproportionately misidentifying Black and Hispanic people as suspects. The article found that the software was twice as likely to misidentify Black people as white people, and six times more likely to misidentify Black people as Asians.

The article also found that the New York Police Department had used the facial recognition software to investigate over 100,000 crimes, and that it had led to over 1,000 arrests. This suggests that the software's racial bias is having a significant impact on the criminal justice system in New York City.

Conclusion:

These two examples demonstrate that both individual racism and institutional racism exist within the criminal justice system in America. Individual racism is evident in the fact that Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, and sentenced to harsher penalties than white Americans. Institutional racism is evident in the fact that the criminal justice system is designed in ways that disproportionately disadvantage Black and Hispanic people.

It is important to note that these are just two examples of the many ways that racism manifests itself in the criminal justice system. There are many other examples that could be cited.

Here are two examples of evidence that demonstrate that both individual racism and institutional racism exist within criminal justice in America:

Example 1:

Individual racism:

A study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested by police than white Americans, even when controlling for factors such as crime rates and demographics.